Rules Don't Apply For Soviet Jews Law Called Irrelevant For Those Who Want To Leave Country

March 19, 1986|by DONALD BLOUNT, The Morning Call

Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union is "a highly politicized situation that is not based on any rules," Dr. George Ginsburgs said last night at Lehigh University.

Ginsburgs, professor of foreign and comparative law at Rutgers University Law School, spoke on Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union before about 30 people in the Iacocca Auditorium at Neville Hall.

Ginsburgs, who has served 10 times as a visiting scholar at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, said law is irrelevant when discussing Soviet emigration because Soviet citizens "have no right to emigrate as such. The whole thing becomes a matter of games."

People have attempted to hold the Soviets to some type of rules, but that has been unsuccessful because the Soviets don't have or follow any rules, he said.

"(The Soviet) performance has been miserable and the harassment of people is endless."

The Soviets say that everyone who wants to leave the country has left but in 1979, 53,000 Soviet Jews were allowed to leave the country and 250,000 Soviet Jews, out of a total 300,000 people, have been allowed to emigrate since 1973.

The Soviets "have made a very large exception (with Jews). Jews have been remarkably successful and privileged" in leaving the country, he said.

He said that could be because of the "great deal of anti-Semitism" that exists in the Soviet Union.

But overall the Soviet emigration policy has been very poor, he said.

Ginsburgs said, "Human rights is not high on their priority list. Soviets are uncomfortable with people when they begin to think on their own. Politics come first over there and always will come first."

For example, he said, the release of Soviet dissident Anatoly Scharansky was "a one-shot gesture."

The Soviets have opened doors to emigration only when they thought it would help them gain something, he said. "The situation is no longer profitable for them. They are afraid if they make too many concessions, people will consider them weak," he said.

Soviet officials fear that "once the door is open" it will will never close, he added.

They also fear a "brain drain," that professional people will leave the country, he said.

Ginsburgs said pressure, continued criticism and the promise of a Soviet profit are needed to increase emigration. However, they all must be done "with considerable discretion.

"You cannot pressure or embarrass the Soviet Union into doing something against its intentions," he said.

"It's a matter of style and proper handling," he added.

Emigration can be obtained as long as it's done on a low profile level and is profitable for the Soviets, Ginsburgs said.

The proper "economic inducements" will surely convince the government to allow some people to leave the country. If people leave the Soviet Union in the future it will be because someone has paid a price for them, Ginsburgs said.

"The KGB will buy and sell anything including its own grandmother and it will probably deliver."